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103 Regiment Royal Artillery
Ex SNOWSTORM 20
Royal Artillery Snowboarding Championships
Flachauwinkl, Austria. Sun, snow and a fight to the podium for 103 Regt RA personnel.
Participation in military sport is widely considered the embodiment of fighting spirit away from the battlefield. The char- acteristics we – at all levels of leadership – are continually trying to instil in our people, can be found in what the services have to offer at Regimental, Corps and Army level via sport and adventurous training. The value added to an individual or to a team is broader and deeper than can easily be articulated, but the development of teamwork, critical decision-making and physical courage are the headlines when it comes to sending a team to an event like Exercise SNOWSTORM the Artillery’s annual snowboard training and competi- tion event.
In 2020, 103 Regt RA sent a team of eight Reserve soldiers to the Royal Regiment of Artillery’s regular haunt of Flachau, Austria, an excellent snowboarding resort.
The Team consisted of a mixture of ranks from Gnr to Capt, from Pte Sophie Hicks 208 Bty to Capt Wayne Illingworth, Team Manager 216 Bty. The competition requires that a regiment puts forward
WO2 (BSM) Andy Ward and Sgt Vicki Wilkinson, the Regiment’s advanced riders, aimed to develop techniques to improve overall speed on the slalom and
a team of a minimum of three with no limitation on ability level, be they novice, interme- diate or advanced. In addition to two days travel either side of the exercise, the training and competition element was twelve days; the first nine consisting of instruction and development, and the final three being competition.
Once you’ve fallen hard it is difficult to describe the sense of trepidation you’re filled with as you line up to go again
confidence in the parks, on which the freestyle element of the final competition would be conducted. For those who had never been on a snowboard before Pte Sophie Hicks, Bdr Scott Brooks, Lt Lydia Brownlow and 2Lt Tim Benson, the first days were to be painful. Unlike skiing, board bindings don’t release upon a threshold of pressure. Once you’ve fallen hard once it is difficult to describe the
For those who had boarded
previously, Army or not,
the intermediate and advanced groups awaited. Sgt Nina Kitajewski 210 Bty who had boarded on two previous trips, was placed in the intermediate category to continue her progressive training, devel- oping technique and building confidence.
sense of trepidation you’re filled with as you line up to go again. But physical courage is one of the things we are always developing, and you quickly discover that without the willingness to risk some discomfort, progression does not happen.
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